Garmin Locate

...in knowing about that as well.

and how often do you folks use that feature?

that when you park your car, you hit the "locate" for your cords, type in "car" and save it. Turn off unit, put in pocket, go spend lots of money, turn unit back on, look in Favorites for "car" and it will lead you back to your vehicle. This only works if you have a unit with a internal battery like my Nuvi650. I put mine in Pedestrian mode and it walks me back to my car. Hope this helps.

Norm

I think I might test that out later today, before I would have a real need for it.

when you take the nuvi out of the mount it automatically saves the "last location" in your favorites ... you did not need to manually save anything

Is not available in all Nuvis - it's in the 7xx series.

But you can do the same thing with any of them. Just touch the vehicle icon... the Nuvi asks if you want to save the current location... touch Yes and name it "Car".

what's special about the "locate" feature?

That's what I was wondering?

games of vehicel-hide and seek?

geocaching for dummies?

bad nights at the bar??

LOL ... I guess Garmin thinks that lots of people forget where they parked in the mall parking lot!

My thought is ... if they can't remember where they park the car, are they going to be capable of using their GPS to find it!?

Probably not, but that hasn't stopped anyone from buying other gadgets...

I have helped confused shoppers find their cars before. I ask:
What Kind - it is a car (that helps)
What color - not sure (or the color wasn't right)
So we go around with the key fob and try doors....

Daniel

aarrgghh wrote:
what's special about the "locate" feature?

I once got off the tram at Disney World at the wrong stop and it took me nearly an hour to find my car. The fact that I had a rental car at the time that looked like hundreds of other rentals parked there that day didn't help. If I had had a Garmin back then, I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation.

Last year, I took my daughter to the Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee. We parked the car on the shoulder of the road and trudged off through the woods to locate monuments. We took a lot of twists and turns and then headed back to the car. Fortunately, I had my Nuvi at that time and it led us back to the car quickly.

does your nuvi have that feature?...or does auto/car mode work just fine?

and how does it direct you?...similar to a compass?...if you are in the woods and there are no roads, does it just draw a straight line?

sorry for the questions...I am having a tough time picturing how that would work, and I can see how I could use that ability.

it works best if you set your vehicle to "Pedestrian" and your routing to "Off Road"

Great, I am going to check it out. I see a lot of people looking for their cars in parking lots. A feature like this will really be helpful.

Here are the instructions I got from Garmin Technical Support:

"Your 'Last Position' is automatically saved each time you remove the nuvi from the cradle. Use this feature to find your car in a parking lot.

How can I find my car in a parking lot?

Touch 'Tools'

touch 'Settings'

touch 'Navigation'

touch 'Route Preference'

touch 'Off Road'

touch 'OK' to put nuvi in Off Road Mode.

Touch 'Where to?'

Touch 'Favorites'

Touch 'Last Position'

Touch 'Go' and the unit will navigate you to your car. "

I thought I would use this but have found it is not really useful. Maybe as above if you are at Disney or somewhere like that it would help.

The first time was when we left a major mall and exited from another side than we entered. Adding to the confusion was the fact that it had gotten dark (it was closing time). Arriving to the spot where our car was supposed to be, and finding a lot of other cars but ours nowhere in sight. First thought that goes through your mind is of course that the car has been stolen. Then as most of the other cars are being driven away, so there are fewer cars to examine for possible match. After 45 minutes of aimlessly wandering all over that side of the mall, you start thinking maybe you are on the wrong side of the mall. Yes, we found the car where we parked it.

At the time this happened we had not yet bought our nuvi360. But for sure it would have been very helpful.

The second time it happened we had the Garmin with us, but I didn't think it would be a problem finding the car. But it was.

So having it automagically save the location when you remove it from the mount is probably the best solution. But for us, since that feature isn't available in the 360, we just to need to make it a habit of saving the location when we park the car.

Being directionally challenged our GPSr is a godsend, and if it can help us find our parked car as well, what is there not to love.

JCA

but it didn't show a "Last Position" in my Favorites.

could that be because I am indoors at the moment, and I have powered my 765T up a couple of times indoors since I last removed it from the cradle?

shouldn't there still be a "Last Position" favorite?...it wouldn't delete it on it's own, right?

I checked mine and I could see Last Position on it. I don't know why would you lose it.

We took a week long house boat vacation on Lake Powell. There were many "paths" to take to go into various canyon outings. My friend had a 760 and we used the "locate" feature. It was fun watching us find our way back to our "home campsite" and/or originating marina.

Like the other comments noted, the non-7xx series can do the same thing. However, it was more fun watching the "bread crumb" dots we left over the lake.

Yet another way of using a Nuvi 7xx.

Some units don't have the great Locate feature built in ...

For those, this article may be of help.

CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? - Finding my Car at the Shopping Mall/Stadium/Disneyland/Airports/Mustang Ranch

I wrote it in Oct of 07

It's on page 1 of the

GARMIN TRICKS, TIPS, WORK AROUNDS, HINTS, SECRETS AND IDEAS Web site.

at http://bit.ly/garmin_gps_tricks

Gary Hayman

I've used the Garmin Locate feature quite often. I do a lot of wilderness hiking, and I find it very, very handy for locating my vehicle. Hard to explain, but if I'm parked offroad, and return to the area from a different direction, I've sometimes had trouble locating the vehicle. Therefor, I find the Garmin locate very useful. Just remember to remove the unit from its mount before it shots down, or the location won't be set.

feel really stupid, but tried several times to use the Locate feature, and never saw the "Last Position" in my Favorites...then I realized that I was indeed shutting it off before removing it from the cradle...DOH!

Your Nuvi must still be turned on when you remove it from the car cradle in order for it to create the Last Position favorite. If you turn the Nuvi off first and then take it out of the cradle, it will not create a Last Position.

I really need to start making use of this when parking at the airport.

I tried this yesterday after walking some trails. I turned on the "bread crumbs" looking feature along with the other suggestions mentioned by others (pedestrian/off road). The compass directed me back within about 15 feet of the front of my vehicle. However, when I got back inside, it indicated i was further away (about 25 ft) from my last position. But, I was INSIDE the vehicle where the position was marked when this happened. Maybe it was a satellite reception problem, who knows.

just my two cents worth!

Or of taking the GPS with them?

It may not work in the covered parking lot area of airport. But if it works then it is a great tool to locate your car.

That's just the normal positional tolerance error for a civilian GPS receiver. Nothing unusual about it.

thanks

Thanks! I thought it was something I was doing wrong (settings, etc.)

BTW - I just used it as a test of my Nuvi. I'd hate to think I got within 25 to 50 ft of my vehicle and couldn't see it. That would be an entirely different problem.

I think the only value of this feature is to find your car in a huge parking lot (pro football, baseball or something like that), or if you've gone hiking off road and need help finding your way back. The advantage of the Garmin Locate feature versus the manual process people spoke of above, is that the device AUTOMATICALLY stores the car's location, so you don't have to remember to manually save it when you leave your car.

And like somebody mentioned above, if the mall/airport/Disneyland has a parking structure and you aren't on the roof, then you've probably "lost satelite reception."

One of the first tips I ever got re: a gps was always, always, always waypoint (mark the location of) your car. It sounds funny, until it isn't. Espec. if you're hiking, weather turns bad, and you want to get to your car as quickly as possible.

Thanks big Mike B.